The safety of nuclear facilities is a national matter. To protect people and the environment from the dangers of nuclear energy and the harmful effects of ionising radiation, each state must ensure that corresponding laws and regulations are in place, and that appropriate nuclear licensing and regulatory authorities are established.

There is no international nuclear regulatory authority with enforcement powers. The states of the international community meet as equals. However, past experience has shown that major nuclear disasters have transboundary effects. The safety standards and precautions that an individual state applies to its nuclear facilities are therefore a matter of international concern.

Thus, the aim of the so-called "peer review missions" is to invite a group of experts from other countries (peers) to a country to inspect the national structures and to make suggestions for improvement (review).

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) based in Vienna is the provider of suitable Peer Review Missionen.

The best-known and internationally most significant mission a state can invite is the IAEA's Integrated Regulatory Review Service, the so-called IRRS-Mission.

An IRRS mission assesses the national regulatory framework of a state, i.e. the laws and regulations as well as the organisation, distribution of duties and responsibilities in the field of nuclear energy, radiation protection and nuclear supply and disposal.

The IAEA also offers the ARTEMIS-Mission (Integrated Review Service for Radioactive Waste and Spent Fuel Management, Decommissioning and Remediation).

The disposal procedure is examined in addition to the legal and sub-legal regulations as well as the tasks and responsibilities of the authorities. The mission looks at which types of waste are produced in a state, and how the disposal is planned and handled. Further to the regulatory framework, the technical solution and implementation as well as financing issues of disposal also play a role.

The IAEA has its own safety requirements - so-called safety standards - in the fields of nuclear energy, radiation protection, and nuclear supply and disposal. These are developed in consensus with the IAEA member states, and used by the IAEA as a test standard for missions.

In accordance with EU Directive "2009/71/EURATOM amended by 2014/87/EURATOM“, each EU member state must invite an expert mission in the field of nuclear safety once every ten years. The member states will also invite somewhat smaller, so-called follow-up missions two to four years after the actual mission, to examine the extent to which the recommendations and advice of the international experts have been implemented. This has been implemented at European level since 2009.

Since 2011, EU Directive 2011/70/EURATOM requirement for the disposal sector.

The EU requirements were implemented into national law in 2017 in Section 24b AtG.

According to Section 24b of the Atomic Energy Act, the "Federal Ministry responsible for nuclear safety and radiation protection" is responsible for inviting the international experts. In Germany, this is the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection (BMUV).

The Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management (BASE) is the technical and regulatory authority in the field of nuclear safety and waste management. It supervises final storage facilities for radioactive waste under nuclear law, and examines licence applications for interim storage facilities for nuclear fuel in accordance with Section 6 of the Atomic Energy Act. As the competent authority, BASE is involved in the missions and takes part in their implementation.

In addition to the BMUV and BASE, further actors involved in the preparation and implementation of IAEA missions on the German side are:

• The supervisory and licensing authorities of the Länder
• Bundesgesellschaft für Endlagerung (BGE) mbH
• Bundesgesellschaft für Zwischenlagerung (BGZ) mbH
• Gesellschaft für Anlagen- und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS) gGmbH
• EWN Entsorgungswerk für Nuklearanlagen GmbH.

The IAEA's requirements are extensive and concern the organisations involved as a whole. In addition to the actual performance of duties (supervision, issuing of licences, etc.), the IAEA imposes requirements on how a nuclear authority is organised, e.g. with regard to staffing, expertise and the management system.

In preparation for the IRRS mission, the authorities to be assessed will compare their own organisational structure with the IAEA requirements. This serves to present the German regulations and structures regarding nuclear safety on the one hand, and to identify instances where Germany deviates from the IAEA requirements on the other. In turn, this will allow for an assessment of improvement potential in the run-up to the mission. Such an approach facilitates the initiation of measures to fill possible gaps in preparation for the mission.

The so-called self-assessment (answering the IAEA's catalogue of questions), the National Action Plan, a compilation of the relevant laws and regulations as well as documents on the organisation and functioning of the nuclear licensing and supervisory authorities are made available to the IAEA in summarised form as ARM (Advance Reference Material).

The ARM for the IRRS mission was published by the BMUV.

The IRRS mission took place from 31 March to 13 April 2019. The IRRS follow-up mission will take place from 8 to 16 October 2023.

The ARTEMIS mission took place from 22 September to 4 October 2019. The ARTEMIS follow-up mission took place from 6 to 12 November 2022.

During the missions, the international experts conduct interviews with representatives of various organisations that perform duties related to nuclear safety and waste management in Germany. Based on these discussions and the documents already provided in advance, the experts examine how Germany implements the IAEA requirements, and identify improvement potential. Visits to facilities are also planned as part of the missions.

In the scope of the missions, the international experts make recommendations and suggestions as to where they believe there are deviations from the IAEA regulations in the regulatory framework or in the handling of radioactive waste, and where they see potential for improvement. The experts' observations as well as their recommendations and advice are recorded in a final report. These final reports were published by the IAEA and the BMUV.

IAEA Final Report of the IRRS-Mission

IAEA Final Report of the ARTEMIS-Mission

Germany must initiate measures to address and implement the recommendations and advice of the international experts. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUV) has drawn up a "post-mission action plan" to coordinate the implementation measures for both missions. This will be coordinated with all organisations involved. The action plans form the basis for the implementation measures.